Yes Kimberly, there is a Santa Claus
by whitem
Summary: Kim found out at an early age the truth about Santa. Now it affects her later in life more than she expected. My entry into Zaratan's Holiday Story Contest. Rated 'T' for mild language. Probably more like a PG-13. Epilogue posted, complete.
1. Chapter 1

If your belief in Santa Claus is strong, please read responsibly.

I'm sure you will see more than a few references to different classic Christmas stories, but I hope the story itself is completely unique. This is my entry into Zaratan's Holiday Story Contest. I think this may be the first time I've entered a story into a contest that's **not** a one-shot. Hope y'all like it!

The wonderful disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, and any references to actual stories, movies, or products therin are not owned by me either.

Yes Kimberly, There is a Santa Claus

College graduation… Wow… They had actually made it! Both Kim and Ron were graduating from a prestigious school in the next 6 months, and neither of them could believe where the time had gone. In one moment, Kim was the lowest on the totem of the College's cheer squad and Ron was, well, Ron… and the next, Kim was the captain of the Cheer Squad, and Ron was… still Ron.

"Six months to go Kim… Can you believe it?" The young blond man (yes, MAN) was almost giddy at the prospect of actually graduating with a college degree. "I mean, who would have thought it Kim? I was voted 'Most Likely to Fail' in Freshman High School, and now I'm going to graduate from college with the most badical, beautiful GF in the whole wide world!"

Kim couldn't help but smile at her fiancé's enthusiasm. She also couldn't help but marvel at the fact that he was going to graduate with a double major of Business Admin. and Culinary Arts.

_Did I just think fiancé?_ Kim thought to herself and smiled as she gave him a peck on the cheek, making Ron pause in his 'giddy moment'.

"What was that for Kim?" He asked with obvious surprise on his face.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Meh… just for you being you." Kim then smiled roguishly and scooted over to him as they sat on the couch in their off-campus apartment. "Now shall we practice a bit more for our wedding night?"

""Kim!" Ron said with obvious over the top shock. "I'm appalled… I thought we talked about cutting back on the Hanky Panky so that our wedding night would be extra special… And the Puppy Dog Pout will not change my mind. It makes things harder to resist… so much harder… but I want to stay true to our promise. Besides, it's Christmas Eve. I so wish the school started their break earlier so we could have left for home today, or even yesterday. And that last mission really torched our schedule. We need the rest tonight so we can make the drive and get home by noon tomorrow."

Kim sat there for a bit, still with the PDP in full force, and finally the corners of her lips curled up into a smile. "That was a test… and you passed with flying colors. Congratulations. You get… a kiss." She then leaned over and planted a kiss on Ron's lips that made his toes curl. Unknown to Ron, the toe-curling was mutual.

"Now…" The red headed vixen said as she slid closer into the warmth of her boyfriend's body, "I'd like to talk about something important."

"Ron placed his arm around her shoulder pulling her in more. "What's up?"

"I know we've talked about children before, but with Christmas tomorrow, it got me to thinking about something." She took a deep breath, wondering how to approach this subject, as she had been dreading this for the last few weeks. Kim had been wanting to talk to Ron about this, and she knew it would be a touchy subject with her soon-to-be-husband.

She forged on, and Kim being Kim, she just laid it all out on the table. "I'd like to tell our children the truth about Santa Claus." The silence was almost deafening, and Kim absently wondered why the ticking clock on the wall was suddenly very loud.

"I… But I thought it… would be better to let them find out for themselves." Ron stammered out. This was one of the few things that Kim had said in their lifetime together that had utterly surprised him.

Kim took a deep breath. "Well… I think it would be better if we told them at a certain point so they don't believe in Santa too long. That way, they won't suffer any crippling trauma, and get mad at us for lying to them for so long."

Ron's jaw worked a bit, and then he thought of how to respond. "But if they find out on their own, then they will grow up realizing the importance of the belief. If we outright tell them, they might not ever believe in anything ever again."

Kim sat up straight. "I don't want our children growing up relying on gifts given to them until they are 16, Ron. I stopped believing when I was 7, and it never affected me." Without realizing it, Kim's voice was starting to rise.

"Belief is a strong thing Kim. I don't want our children to be raised in a family that doesn't believe in anything. Who are we to decide what they believe or not believe? Or when to believe in something and when to stop?" Now Ron's voice was starting to rise, and he also didn't realize it.

At this point the two young people, who thought they were in love, were now sitting apart from each other on the couch feeling a bit more than animosity towards each other. A simple discussion was spiraling out of control. This was the worst argument the two had had in a very long time, and this was an important one. It concerned the raising of their future family.

Ron crossed his arms, pushed himself back into the couch, and muttered something under his breath. "What did you say?" Kim asked in a dangerous tone, and her eyes narrowed.

"I said, maybe I don't believe we will have kids at all then." Kim was utterly shocked at this statement by her fiancé. "Maybe I should have listened to Mom all those years ago when she said I should marry a nice Jewish girl."

"Ronald Dean Stoppable…" At this point Ron knew there was going to be trouble. Kim only used his full name when she was really angry. "All I wanted to do was discuss the merits of revealing the true nature of Santa Claus, and you turn this into a… a Jewish thing? I thought we had gotten past that looong ago. If we haven't gotten past that yet, then I shouldn't have ever said 'Yes' when you asked me to marry you!"

Kim then stood, and stomped through the room to the front closet. She pulled out her coat, and opened the front door. A blast of cold air came in, making Ron shiver. But he wasn't shivering from the cold, it was the fact that the love of his life was standing at the front door angrier than she had ever been, looking like she was going to leave him for good.

"Where are you going?" He asked, and Kim's response was quick and sharp.

"Out. I don't know where yet."

"Well be careful. It looks like a storm is moving in. You know how these Midwest storms can be." The door slammed shut, and Ron turned up the TV as a warning had just come on.

_"Ladies and Gentlemen, your local radar has picked up a line of snow storms coming off the Rocky Mountains that just might dump more than a foot of snow on the entire area. I would suggest that you all just stay home tonight, and huddle up with your significant other in front of a fireplace. It could get rough. So stay safe. We now return you to your evening movie, Sleepless in Seattle." _

"This is not good." Ron said to himself. He suddenly missed his little pet Rufus more than ever now. The little guy had passed away just last year from old age, and it had deeply affected him. Kim was there to help him through, but he still felt lonely for the little guy at times, and this was definitely one of those times. Quickly he ran to the door, and pulled it open to yell at Kim and ask her to come back, but it was too late. He saw the tail lights of the Sloth disappear in the distance.

…x x x x…

Kim didn't know where she was driving, she just had to drive. Her tears were flowing, making it hard to see through the now blowing snow. She had the wipers going at full speed, and it wasn't helping much. The bright lights of the sloth were helping, but not much either, and she could barely see the edge of the road. When Kim realized where she was actually going, she paused.

"Why am I heading home?" Kim said to herself. "It's too far to drive in weather like this." She then cursed at herself for being so scatter brained, and flipped on the GPS on the dash. The screen was almost ominous.

"**No Signal Acquired".**

She then pressed a button that normally connects her immediately with her good friend Wade Load. All Kim saw on that screen was static. "Man… This must be some storm." She flicked on the radio, and finally found something on the AM dial.

"_Folks, this looks a Century Storm. It's hitting fast, and hard, and it might stay for a while. So stay off the roads, and batten down the hatches." _

Kim reached down to adjust the radio as it started to fuzz out a bit. Then out of the corner of her eye he saw something suddenly dart in front of the car. It looked like a dog or something, and she swerved to try and miss it. It was just her luck that the tires were on a sheet of almost pure ice, and the sudden change put the car into a sideways skid.

Quickly she remembered to turn in the direction of the skid, and Kim saw a steel guardrail heading right for her. Somehow the tires of the sloth gained traction, and she stopped just inches before hitting the barrier. Kim sat there for a bit gripping the steering wheel and breathing hard trying to get her nerves back. After only a few minutes she was able to steer the Sloth back onto the road. Kim knew that if she had crashed through that barrier, she most likely would have ended up in Mid-River.

"I can make it home, I can make it home." Kim said to herself as she drove down the road at a much slower pace. The headlights illuminated a sign up ahead, and she saw that it was the 'Welcome to Middleton' sign. "Huh… I didn't think I was on the road that long."

The rest of the trip to her house was uneventful, and Kim pulled up into the drive. She got out of the car, and went to the front door since the garage was closed to block out the cold wind. She rang the doorbell, and absently wondered why the front door was red. "I thought they repainted this last year?" She thought.

When no one answered the door after a few minutes, she shivered a little and pressed the doorbell again. This time she knocked as well. _I know they're home._

She shivered a little more and waited a bit longer. Just when she was about to ring the bell again, the door finally opened, and Kim quickly slipped inside. "Thank-you Daddy. I was beginning to wonder if you would ever open that door."

Kim looked at her Dad, and then did a double take. The gray in his hair was gone. Then she noticed something else that was different. He wasn't looking at her. It was as if he was looking at the mirror in the foray with his brow furrowed a little. Then she heard him mutter, "Huh… Thought I saw something. Oh well."

Then Kim heard her mother call out. "Who was at the door Dear?" Kim turned, and once again she had to do a double take. Her mom looked so… young! Her hair was a bit longer and more rounded on the bottom, and she was wearing a white headband that she hadn't worn in years.

Her Dad shrugged. "No one I guess. I would have sworn I heard a knock. You heard it too, right?"

"Yes I did. Maybe it was the storm." Anne said, and Kim's Dad just nodded, not really responding.

"Mom? Dad?" Kim said with a shaking voice. "Is… is that really you? You look so… so…" Both of her parents then walked back into the kitchen as if they hadn't even heard her.

Suddenly a shrill voice yelled out from up inside her room. "Moooommm! Do I hafta wear this sweater tomorrow?"

She then heard her mother respond, "Oh Kimmie… Your Nana Possible knitted that for you for our yearly family skit this year! Since she will be here tomorrow, you do have to wear it"

Then Kim's jaw dropped again, but this time it fell all the way to the floor. There bounding down the stairs from her bedroom, wearing a hand-made Nana Possible Original Sweater, was non-other than a spitting image of herself when she was only 7 years old.

To be continued…

* * *

I guess you could call this a classic story with a definite Kim Possible style, and just a bit of whitem flair.


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry for the small wait for this chapter. I had a few technical problems with flow, so I hope everything reads well now. Next, I would like to say Thank-You to all who reviewed Chapter 1: CajunBear73, Comet Moon, JAKT, screaming phoenix, MrDrP, Shrike176, Yankee Bard, theotherdave, Mr. Wizard, Kwebs, Katsumara, bigherb81, Slyrr, and kim's1 fan.

Disclaimer: Do I really have to repeat this? I… don't… own… these… characters! Hope this makes the Legal Dudes happy…

Chapter 2

Kim watched dumbly as her 7 year old self ran into the kitchen where her parents were. She walked into the kitchen and stood in the doorway and suddenly she remembered what was going to occur next. She mouthed the words as the rambunctious little red head started to plead her case.

"But Moooom… The sleeves are too long, it smells of moth balls, and it makes me itch like crazy!" Kim couldn't help but feel for her younger self. After all… she had lived it.

From behind her in another room, Kim then heard two voices wailing their heads off. "Sounds like the Terrible Two have woke up Honey." Anne said. "You get Tim and I'll get Jim?"

"Sure… give _me_ the evil one." James said with a chuckle.

"Mooooom! What about me?" Little Kimmie said, with her long sleeves held up for her mother to see.

"We'll pin up the sleeves, so you can at least use your hands, after we get back here with the twins. OK, Dear?" Kimmie slumped into a chair with a pout. "And when we get back I better not see that pout still on your face Little Missy." Kimmie's pout just seemed to deepen as she watched them walk out of the kitchen.

Kim walked over to her younger self and said to her, "Don't worry. Things will get better, trust me." She didn't expect a response since she knew her younger self couldn't hear or see her, but she was beginning to wondering just why she was here, and at this point in time.

"Here we go…" Kim heard her mother say behind her as she and her husband carried the twins into the kitchen. "I think these guys are just hungry."

"They're always hungry Mom." Little Kimmie said.

"Well, they are growing boys." James said. "I just wish they would start talking sometime soon."

"They will Dear. They will. I didn't say my first word until after I turned two." James started to open his mouth to say something, but his wife gave him a look that made him think twice about saying what had come to mind. With a bit of a smile he finished strapping Tim into his high chair.

"So Kimmie-Cub, are you excited about tomorrow?"

"How can I not be Daddy? It's Christmas!" 7 year old Kim could barely keep still in her seat as her mom set supper down in front of her, which was a bowl of steaming hot homemade vegetable beef stew.

"No…" Kim said as she stood back in a corner of the kitchen watching everything play out in front of her. "Not that Christmas… Please don't let it be that Christmas…" Her arms had involuntarily wrapped around her body, and a tear started to drop from Kim's cheek as she stood there shaking her head side to side.

"I asked Santa to bring me that special Barbara-Anne Doll and house. Everyone at school has the doll, but the house just came out, and no one else has one yet. Not even Bonnie!" Older Kim's head slumped down after hearing what her younger self wanted for a present. It really **was** that Christmas.

"Now Kimmie-Cub," Her Dad said with a slightly admonishing tone, "What have I told you about wanting something just to have it before others do?"

Little Kimmie dropped her head as she immediately felt the shame for what she had just said, almost mirroring her older counter-part. Her voice wasn't nearly as exuberant as it previously had been. "I'm sorry Daddy… It… it just slipped out. Do you think Santa heard?"

"Oh I don't think he heard Honey. Besides, I think if he had, he would have also seen that you are sorry for saying that. We're all entitled to a few slip-ups now and then." James smiled at his daughter, and gave a knowing wink to his wife.

"I wonder if Santa saw how sorry you were for leaning on that launch button back in October, Dear." Anne said to her husband with a bit of a smile and raised left eyebrow.

"I still think those things should be color-coded, instead of just labeled." Anne chuckled at her husband while she set a glass of cold milk next to Kimmie's bowl.

…x x x x…

For the remainder of the evening, all older Kim could do was watch her younger family go through the motions of Christmas Eve. With the twins at this age, they weren't old enough to be in the family skit, so it would be tomorrow, on Christmas Day when Nana was there.

Now that Kim knew exactly which Christmas this was, and knowing that there was no way she could stop it, she wanted to leave, but she couldn't. In fact, Kim had tried once, and her hand just passed over any doorknob she tried to grasp as if she had no substance. This confused her at first, since she was able to feel herself, and the clothes she was wearing.

So Kim just stood back and watched as her family finished their supper, and then play a couple of board games before it was announced that it was time for bed. The twins had nodded off earlier, so both parents gently carried them to their bedroom. Since Kimmie was a bit older, she didn't have to go to bed as early as her younger brothers, but she knew that soon it would be her time as well. She and her parents stayed in the Living Room watching a Rudolph special on TV, and finally little Kimmie's eyes started to droop.

"Kimmie?" Her Mom said just as her head dropped forward a bit. "Are you forgetting something?"

"Huh?" Groggy eyes looked at her Mom. "Don't you want to put out cookies and milk for Santa?"

Suddenly little Kim's sleepy eyes snapped open. "Oh yeah! How could I forget?" She bounded off the couch heading for the kitchen to get the cookies and milk. Soon she came out with a plate of cookies, a couple carrots, and a glass of milk.

"What's the carrots for?" James asked.

"For the reindeer Daddy. I would sure think they get hungry as well. I mean, they have to pull the sleigh all night." James chuckled, and agreed with his daughter while she set the plate of food and milk right next to the fireplace.

"Now on to bed with you Kimmie-Cub. Santa will know you're still up, and you know he won't be here until you go to sleep." With that, Kim watched as her younger self bound up the steps to her room. It wouldn't be much longer now.

Older Kim went ahead on up to her bedroom to watch her younger self get ready for bed. She watched the little freckled girl brush her hair, wash her face, and then brush her teeth. She chuckled a bit realizing that she always did the same thing before going to bed, in the same order, even as an adult. Old habits truly were hard to break.

It wasn't long after little Kimmie crawled in between the sheets that she fell asleep. All older Kim could do was watch and think that this little girls innocence about Christmas was about to be rocked to the very core. She really didn't want to watch, but Kim couldn't help it. It's like the morbid curiosity of on-lookers who look at a car accident as they drive by.

It only took about 15 minutes for James and Anne to silently climb the steps and look in on their daughter to make sure she was asleep before they set to their task of pulling out the other presents, and setting them up. Older Kim followed them down and saw where both parents went to.

Kim's Dad went into his study, opened his closet door, and reached up on the top shelf to pull down gifts. Anne went into the kitchen pantry, and dug behind a shelf of vegetables to get at the other gifts that they had hidden from their children. Kim saw where each of her parents hiding places were, and silently berated herself for not checking in those places when she was little.

Kim stood off to one side and watched as her parents set about their tasks of setting up the gifts that were to be from Santa Claus. They had just barely started when James stopped what he was doing, which was setting up the Barbara Anne Doll House, and said, "Anne… you know what we're forgetting?"

Kim saw her mother's shoulders slump. "James… do we have to?"

"C'mon Anne… It helps to keep in the spirit of things. Please?" Kim could see a goofy grin on her father's face.

Both James and Anne then went into their bedroom, and after only a couple minutes they came back out dressed completely different. James wore a large red coat with white fluffy trim, and red pants. He also wore a red Santa hat, complete with white fuzzy ball on the tip that hung down next to his left cheek. Anne was wearing a red skirt that went to midway between her hips and knees, and it also had the fluffy white trim around its hem. She wore a red sweater-jacket that had the fluffy white trim, and a Santa cap that matched her husbands.

Kim couldn't believe that her parents had gone to these lengths to set out the presents every Christmas, but she also found it a bit endearing to know that they were really just big kids at heart.

_A little like Ron._ She sadly thought to herself.

Anne also had on some red slippers that curled up at the toes, looking for all purposes like Elf shoes, complete with a bell on the tip. They were a little big on her, and she tripped while walking back to her duty of filling the socks that were hung by the chimney with care. Luckily James caught her before she cracked her head on the mantle, but the bells on her feet made more noise than they expected.

"James…" Anne hissed through her teeth. "I told you this was a bad idea. What would happen if any of the kids woke up and caught us doing this? Dressed as we are?"

"Oh Annie-Elf… You worry too much." James said, and his wife gave him the hairy eyeball for calling her Annie-Elf. "Besides, that wasn't loud enough to wake anyone up. Now I need to finish setting up this dollhouse. The things more complicated than a 3 stage booster."

James sat down with his legs spread apart and the doll house between them while he worked, and Anne was finishing up with the stockings when something snapped on the doll house. It wasn't that loud, but loud enough for Anne to look at her husband to see what he was doing.

"Damnit that hurt!" James said as he shook his finger and then put it in his mouth. Then the two heard a little voice that they so did not want to hear at this point. It was Kimmie.

"That's not a nice word Santa." Both parents froze and didn't move a muscle.

Both of their backs were still towards little Kimmie's hiding place, so she hadn't seen their faces. James decided to try something, and without turning around, he stood and lowered his voice as much as he could.

"Ho, Ho, Ho… You better get back to bed Kimmie-Cub. You know your not supposed to see me."

The little voice continued. "I didn't know you had a helper Santa. Is that Mrs. Claus?" Anne had her back turned also, looking like she was checking on a stocking.

"Why yes it is. She's helping me out tonight. There were more presents than usual for some reason this year." James hoped that his little girl was buying the charade.

"Why did you call me Kimmie-Cub? Only my Daddy calls me Kimmie-Cub."

For that question, James didn't have an answer. Then he felt a small tug on his jacket and then his daughter's voice again. "Why aren't you answering me… and why don't you look at me? Don't you want to look at me? I've been a very good girl this year."

Older Kim couldn't watch anymore, and she had to close her eyes. Tears were now flowing down her cheeks as she listened to what was happening on Christmas morning. The Christmas morning that she found out about the truth of Santa Claus.

"You've been a VERY good little girl." James said, continuing on. "Now why don't you go on up to bed so Mrs. Claus and I can finish putting out the presents?"

"Where's your beard? I don't see your beard." Now James had to turn his face more away from his little girl to keep her from looking closer. "Look at me Santa… Please? Pl…" James thought at first that Kimmie hadn't seen his face, but his little girl tricked him, and had gone around him the opposite way, and was now looking directly at him.

"D… Daddy? Wh… what are you doing?" Anne had turned around by now, knowing that the jig was up. "M… Mommy? Wh… why are you guys here? Why are you putting out presents? And why are you dressed as Santa and Mrs. Claus?"

"W… we… We're just helping him Honey." Anne said.

"But… But Daddy was working on the Barbara Anne Doll House. I asked for that from Santa… Not you. There was no way you could have known that's what I wanted. No… Unless…"

One corner of Kimmie's lip began to tremble, and tears were welling up in her eyes. "Unless Bonnie was right… That there really is no Santa Claus…. There IS no Santa, is there? IS THERE? Christmas is ruined! I HATE you! I hate you both!" By now Kimmie was screaming at the top of her lungs, clenching her little fists at her sides.

Finally her eyes burst into tears and she ran up the stairs to her room, crying the entire way. The twins started to cry in their room from being woke up, and all Heck broke loose early Christmas morning at the Possible house. Unknown to everyone, there was a sixth there that was standing off in a corner, crying her eyes out as well.

But she wasn't crying for the ruined Christmas. Older Kim was crying about the lost innocence of a little child who had so desperately believed in Santa all the years before this one. She was crying for the fact that this day had mentally scarred her for a very long time, and she was crying for the way she had left her husband to be.

The final words she had told him were now echoing in her ears. "…then I shouldn't have ever said 'Yes' when you asked me to marry you!"

To be continued, and Possibly completed with the next chapter...

* * *

I really hope this sounds like a plausible way that Kim finds out about Santa.


	3. Chapter 3

Hey there everyone… I sincerely hope y'all are enjoying this little Christmas story of mine. I would like to give a shout out to all who reviewed the previous chapter: screaming phoenix, JAKT, Comet Moon, Sentinel103, noncynic, Kwebs, Soth11, Katsumara, CajunBear73, waveform, Shrike176, Joe Stoppinghem, Mr. Wizard, Slyrr, Thomas Linquist, and bigherb81. You all Rock!

Disclaimer? Do I still need a disclaimer? Well, either way… don't own, so don't sue…

Chapter 3

While James went to the twins room to get them settled down and back to sleep, Anne stood at the bottom of the steps that led up to her daughter's bedroom. She didn't like hearing Kim cry, and she figured it would be best to talk to her about what happened as soon as possible.

Quietly Anne called up, just loud enough for her daughter to here. "Kimmie? Can I come up?" She could hear Kimmie sniffing back tears. "Honey please, I'd like to talk to you."

A muffled voice called down. "Go away!"

_Probably has her face buried into her pillow._ Anne thought to herself, knowing her daughter. "Please Kimmie… It's important. It's about what just happened… What you just saw your father and I doing."

There were a few heartbeats before a weak little voice was heard. "Ok…"

Anne quietly went up the stairs, and as soon as she was able to see her daughter's bed, Anne's heart almost sank. Kim was still lying with her face down into her pillow, and her little shoulders shaking from crying. Anne sat down on the edge of her daughter's bed, which made Kimmie turn over and sit up.

Older Kim had followed her mother up the steps, and sat down on the floor opposite the bed with her back against the wall. She sort of remembered the conversation with her mother, but it was so long ago she had forgotten parts of it.

"You Ok Honey?" Anne asked with all the love and understanding that only a mother could convey with those three simple words.

"(sniff)… Yeah… I guess s… so." She paused for a few seconds, and then said, "I'm sorry Mommy."

"What are you sorry for Dear?"

"For saying that I hated you and Daddy. I… I don't hate you. I just hope you don't hate **me** now."

Anne slid over closer to Kimmie and enveloped her in a hug. "Oh Honey… your father and I would never hate you. Why would you say that?"

"F… for what I said to you." Kimmie said.

"Oh Honey…" Anne said as she squeezed her only daughter a little bit tighter. "I know that you're sorry, and that you didn't mean it."

"Mommy…" Kim said as she pulled out of the hug and wiped away her drying tears. "I… I thought it was a bad thing to lie."

"What do you mean Dear?" Anne asked with her eyes slightly narrowed. Older Kim leaned forward a bit to hear a little better, but it was Anne who spoke next. "Oh… you think that your daddy and I lied to you about Santa, don't you?" Little Kimmie nodded, causing a few locks of her now mussed hair to fall into her face, which her mother absently brushed back with one of her hands.

Anne opened her mouth to say something, but stopped herself. She sat there for a few seconds looking into her daughter's big green eyes, and then an idea popped into her head. "I think I've got something that can explain _everything_. I'll be right back." Anne left the bedroom for only about 2 minutes, and returned carrying a large manila envelope.

"This is something that a Great Aunt from New York left to my family. I've had this for quite a few years, but I think it will help us in this situation. It's a newspaper clipping, and it's quite old… so we need to be careful with it."

Little Kimmies eyes went wide. "What is it?"

"It's an article that was written in the editorial section of The New York Sun newspaper back in 1897." Anne said while she gently pulled the yellowed paper from the envelope. "We really should put this in a protective sleeve of some sort."

"You see Kim… a little girl wrote a letter to the newspaper back then asking if there was really a Santa Claus. Her father had told her that whatever was written in the newspaper was true, so she thought this would be a good idea. This article here is the response, and I would like to read it to you. The language may sound a little different since it was so long ago, but I think you will understand the gist of it. Do you want to hear it?"

"What was the name of the little girl?" Kimmie asked as she leaned forward. By now little Kimmie had replaced her crying eyes with eyes of wonder and intrigue. Anne smiled a little to herself at the way her daughter could switch her emotions around so quickly.

"Her name was Virginia, and the title of this article is 'Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus'". Kimmie's mother then cleared her throat. "From the editorial page of the New York Sun, 1897, an article written by Francis P. Church:

_We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:_

_I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?  
Virginia O'Hanlon_

_Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge._

_Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus._

_He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished._

At this point, Anne didn't notice that her daughter's eyelids were beginning to droop, as the earlier events were starting to take their toll, and the fact that that it was a little after midnight. A wide-eyed older version of Kim Possible leaned forward as she listened to the article. She had heard of the article and the associated story, but she did not remember it being read to her by her mother, and she had never read it on her own before.

_Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world._

_You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world, which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding._

_No Santa Claus? Thank God he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood._

_Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!"_

When Anne finished the article, she saw that her daughter had fallen asleep at some point, and was softly snoring. She gave a little chuckle, and quietly said, "So much like your father."

Even though her younger self had fallen asleep while her mother read, the older Kim had heard the entire article, and only now did Kim truly realize the importance of Santa Claus and what he represented. It wasn't all about the supposed belief in the Santa figure it self, but it was the belief that was the most important.

Still sitting on the floor with her back against the wall, a tear fell from the corner of Kim's eye while she watched the younger version of her mother walk down the steps. She then looked over at the sleeping form of her younger self. Kim now finally understood just what was so special about believing in Santa. Heck… She might even start believing in the big guy dressed in red, now that she had heard the entire article.

Kim leaned back against the wall from her sitting position and squeezed her eyelids tightly. Her head started to hurt a bit, and when Kim finally opened her eyes, she was back in her car, and her head wasn't just hurting, it was throbbing.

She looked around with half-lidded eyes trying to take in her new surroundings, and she couldn't quite place a rushing sound that was echoing in her ears. When things started to clear, she saw a number of different things that immediately had Kim worried. One, she had something cold and sticky on the left side of her head. She looked at the driver's side window and saw a small crack and a bit of blood where her head had struck the window during the accident.

Yes… it was an accident! Kim now remembered swerving to miss an animal… a dog, she thought it was. The next thing Kim noticed was that it was cold… very cold. She saw that the passenger door window was partially broken out, and a frigid wind was blowing in, along with a few flakes of snow. Initially the bracing cold gave her senses a jolt, but now it was starting to actually make her a bit tired.

_This is not good._ Kim thought to herself.

She then looked out of the windshield, and saw just how perilous her situation really was. The front wheels of the car were just barely over the edge of the bank of Mid-River, and she could feel the water starting to push the car to one side very slowly. Instinctively Kim's hand went to her pants pocket to pull out the Kimmunicator, but it wasn't there. She had forgotten to bring it with her in her mad rush out of her and Ron's apartment.

"Ron…" Kim mouthed, seeing her breath as she exhaled, and wrapped her arms around her self, shivering. The coat she had brought wasn't made to keep her warm in these frigid temps. The next thing she checked was the dash mounted screen in her car. All it took was a glance to know that her car was definitely out of commission. The screen was continuously flashing the message "REBOOTING SYSTEM", but nothing was happening. It seemed that the combination of the accident and the cold had also affected the main computer, so she couldn't use the onboard system to call Wade either.

Then Kim both heard and felt a dull "thunk" near the rear of the car. With her head still throbbing, she turned around and tried to look out the rear window. It was partially frosted over from the cold, but she could see… something. It looked like the back end of a red vehicle, but she didn't hear an engine of any kind. Kim absently thought that maybe the howling wind was covering up the sound of the engine, but what she heard next made Kim suddenly question just how serious her head injury was.

She heard a deep voice almost floating through the air, and it was calling out some names. "Pull Dasher, pull Dancer, Prancer and Vixen!" This was followed by the snap of what sounded like a whip of some kind. "C'mon Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen! Pull boys… PULL!" Again there was the snap of a whip.

She then felt the car lurch a bit, and a sickening wave of nausea washed over Kim as the car moved sideways from the push of the river on the front wheels, and her head injury wasn't helping matters much either. There was another snap of the whip, and the Sloth almost launched back and away from the rushing water that Kim had earlier thought would be her grave.

The jerk of the car as it was pulled off the small bank had jostled Kim around a bit, making her hold her head again with a groan. With her face in her hands, Kim then heard a soft knocking on the driver's side window. When she looked up to see who her rescuer was, her jaw dropped to the floor.

There stood someone, who for all intense and purposes looked EXACTLY like Santa Claus. He had everything from the white beard, to the red hat, jacket and pants. The man cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled out so she could hear. "Are you Ok Kimberly?"

"Y… Yeah… I think so. I think I might have a concussion, but I'm fine." She answered back, not quite believing that there was someone running around pulling people from the river dressed as Santa Claus.

Kim then saw the flash of head-lights play across the windows of her car as it started to pass by where she had gone through the guard rail. The vehicle stopped, and started to back up.

The Santa figure then laughed. "Ho, Ho, Ho… I'd better go Kimberly. I've got a lot of work yet to do tonight. Looks like a young man is here to help you, so you should be fine." He looked over his shoulder at a vehicle that had stopped near the spot where her car had gone though the rail. "Well I better get to going. You're Fiancé is here to save you. Merry Christmas Kimberly!"

Kim looked over at the headlights, and saw someone getting out with a large flashlight which shone down on her car. She then looked back out the driver's window to ask the man how he knew it was Ron, but the man in red was gone.

Kim then felt something wet on her cheeks, and she realized that she had started to cry just a little. "Was that a dream?" She asked herself and rubbed her eyes a bit. When she looked back out the window, Kim saw Ron a few feet from her car. He almost fell once, but eventually made it to the vehicle.

"Kim!" Ron yelled out, and tried to pull the door open. His hand slipped off the handle, and the door didn't budge. It was wedged into the frame from the impact, and there was a bit of ice that had also built up on the vehicle.

Kim watched as Ron closed his eyes and brought his gloved hands together in front of his face for a bit, and she saw his hands start to glow blue. When Ron opened his eyes, Kim saw that they had a blue glow to them as well. He had just charged himself up to do something.

Kim leaned away from the door just as Ron reached out, and then with minimal effort, he yanked the door open and off it's hinges. After dropping the door, he looked at Kim with his now big brown eyes, and said with his goofy grin, "Oops… Sorry 'bout that."

Ron then reached in and picked Kim up in the classic carry, one arm under her shoulders, and the other under her legs. "It's a good thing you didn't go any further down Kim." He said as Kim lay her still hurting head onto his shoulder. "Any further and you would have gone into the river."

As Ron Stoppable carried his soon-to-be wife up the bank towards his SUV on the road, neither he nor Kim saw the tracks that were left when the car was pulled out of the river. By morning they would be filled with snow, not to be seen for a long time.

…x x x x…

While Ron put Kim into the front seat, he saw her eyes flutter a bit before it looked like she fell asleep. When he put her seatbelt on, Ron would have swore that he heard Kim say, "Thank-you Santa".

* * *

A short Epilogue will follow.

Well, I hope this wasn't too corny. I'm sure someone will tell me if it was.

I just want to make sure credit is given where credit is due: The article used in this story is a real article that was written in 1897 by Francis P. Church in the newspaper called The New York Sun.


	4. Chapter 4

No A/N here, but let me give a big Thank-You to all who reviewed the last chapter: Comet Moon, captainkodak1, CajunBear73, Mr. Wizard, Katsumara, Warbird, Shrike 176, Sentinel103, screaming phoenix, noncynic, Joe Stoppinghem, Thomas Linquist, Slyrr, Soth11, kim's 1 fan, MrDrP, Sacred White Phoenix, and bigherb81… Y'all rock!

Disclaimer: Once again I suppose I should say something along the lines that I don't own any of the characters involved therein…

Epilogue

About 10 Years later… 2AM Christmas morning

"So that's what made you change your mind about Santa Claus Mommy?" A little girl with strawberry blonde hair and brown eyes said with a sense of wonder and awe. The tears she had been crying earlier were all dried up, and she was no longer angry at her parents.

"Sure was Ronnie Anne." Kim said with a note of finality to her daughter of 8 years old. The full name of Kim and Ron's daughter was actually Veronica Anne Stoppable, but they had started to call her Ronnie Ann at a very early age, and it just sort of stuck.

Little Ronnie Anne looked up as her father walked into the living room with a tray that held three steaming cups of hot chocolate, and 3 large oatmeal and raisin cookies.

"Small marshmallows, Daddy?" Ronnie Anne asked with a bit of worry in her eyes and voice.

Ron sighed. "Yes Honey, small marshmallows." Ever since 'The Great Marshmallow Incident' from two years ago, Ronnie Anne would never again have large marshmallows… ever.

The young girl then looked back to her mother while she continued to sit on the floor cross-legged in front of her parents, while both Kim and Ron sat next to each other on the couch, wearing matching Santa suits. Next to the couch was a Christmas tree decked out with all the decorations, and the floor beneath it was literally heaped with presents. On the mantle over the fireplace place was the traditional Jewish Menorah, along with other various Hanukah decorations. Kim and Ron had made a concerted effort to combine Hanukah and the traditional Christmas, and they had made it work quite well.

Their daughter Ronnie Anne still had a troubled look on her face. "But… Was that the real Santa that saved you then, or was it an illusion caused by your head injury? I mean, it was quite a coincidence that Daddy arrived at the same time."

"I will always believe that it was the real Santa that pulled me from the river that night." Kim said as she took her cup of hot chocolate from her husband and blew on it. "I was already pulled back from the edge when your father arrived. When Wade Load himself did his own investigation of the accident, he said that with the force it took for my car to go through that barricade, the momentum of the car should have put me into the river. Someone… or some _thing_, had to have pulled me back."

"So even after the argument you two had, you still loved each other?" Ronnie Anne asked after taking a sip of her hot chocolate, leaving a bit of a mustache on her upper lip.

Both Kim and Ron smiled at their daughter and chuckled at the sight. Kim motioned to her mouth, and Ronnie Anne used the sleeve of her pajamas to wipe away the offending substance, which made her mother give her a mildly disapproving look.

"Sorry." She said with a dip of her head, and then looked back at her parents, expecting an answer to her last question.

"Of course we still loved each other Honey." Kim said. "I realized that I was the immature one to run off like I did. But in a sense, if I hadn't, I wouldn't believe in Santa the way I do now, and you most likely would have never been born."

"Sooo… You guys are telling me that there really **is **a Santa Claus, even though I still caught you doing… this." She indicated the presents sitting around the tree, and the full stockings hanging on the mantle.

"Yes." Both Kim and Ron chimed at the exact same time.

"Riiiight." Was the reply of a not so convinced 8 year old girl.

"Now you better finish your hot chocolate and get to bed before the real…" Suddenly everyone in the room stopped short and looked up towards the ceiling when they heard a series of dull thumps, and something that sounded like the tinkling of tiny bells.

Ronnie Anne's eyes went wide and she literally gulped down the rest of her hot chocolate, which was only about half full, and ran back to her room as fast as her 'Fuzzy Bunny' slippers could carry her. Kim and Ron stood and walked out of the room in a more leisurely manner, quietly snickering under their breath.

The happily married couple stopped just before leaving the room, and stole a kiss underneath the mistletoe hanging in the arched doorway. Just as their lips parted, they heard a soft, yet commanding voice behind them. "Ho, Ho, Ho… nice job you two… and Merry Christmas."

Both Kim and Ron turned, raised their cups of hot chocolate to Santa in a silent toast, and then went to their bedroom knowing that this would be one of their most memorable Christmases ever.

The end…

* * *

Over the top? I hope not…

I also hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, a great Kwanza, or whatever it is you celebrate this time of year. Just remember… it's not all about what your physical senses tell you, it's what you believe in that really counts. Be safe!


End file.
